She completed the World Road Championships with a broken leg: Who is Annemiek van Vlueten?

She won the Belgian Tour just a month after coming back from a blood-chilling crash at Rio 2016, where she lay with her limbs bent on the edge of the pavement. In the 2017 La Course, she recorded a legendary time in the Strava segment with her attack on Col d'Izoard. Vleuten's time could only be beaten by two male cyclists competing in the Tour de France on the same day. Finally, in 2018, she finished the World Road Championship in seventh place, after completing the last 90 kilometers with a broken leg. In 2019, she won the rainbow jersey once again with her solo attack at the world championship in Yorkshire.

Annemiek van Vleuten (born 8 October 1982) is a retired Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who most recently rode for UCI Women's WorldTeam Movistar Team.

Working in an office after university, van Vleuten understood much better the difference between normal life and professional cycling work. “Sometimes I imagine going back to the office I hate and I say to myself, 'Oh, don't complain that it's raining today because the bike is so much nicer.'

The accident she had in the 155.6km World Championship caused van Vleuten to break her kneecap. The result was the end of the double title chance. “When I saw the MRI, I couldn't believe it,” says van Vleuten. “I was in extreme pain after the accident. But I mastered the climb and was even leaving everyone behind with one leg. It still felt so bad. I thought it was just internal bleeding in my knee. I pushed for my desire to win. I couldn't accept that I couldn't win just because an accident happened in front of me. “My will to win is more effective than pain.”

As a young child, van Vleuten enjoyed football, gymnastics, and horseback riding, as well as cycling. She says that in the past she used to commute to school on her red, fifth-hand Peugeot racing bike. “I remember when I started doing 1km rides to school,” says van Vleuten. “I was only eight years old.”

Van Vleuten also loved watching the Tour: “Especially during Rabobank when the Dutch were at the front of the peloton. I remember Peter Winnen, Leon van Bon, and Michael Boogerd.”

Football remained her primary passion, but after she tore her cruciate ligament in 2005, her doctor recommended she cycle more.

“I bought a bike to keep fit because I gained weight during my student years. My friends knew me as a fun-loving person, and I actually can't believe how serious I am about cycling today. I started competing in 2007 and became more and more fanatic. Then, in 2008, I took a physical test with oxygen measurements and learned that I had the same values ​​as the girls on the national team. "At that point, I stopped and said, 'Hey, I can be successful.'"

After university, van Vleuten joined the DSB Bank-Nederland Bloeit team simultaneously with her office job. “At first I was very nervous about competing. It took me 20 years to recover from stress,” says van Vleuten. “I hated racing at first, but then I started to enjoy it.”

Van Vleuten, who left her office job in 2010, made 25 podium finishes in the UCI calendar. “My salary as a cyclist was €800 per month. That's why I can't say I was a professional. But I believed I could achieve it.”

In 2011 she won the Tour of Flanders. “It was the race where I broke out of my shell,” says van Vlueten. “History alone makes Flanders a valuable race, but running it on the same day as the men made it even more valuable.

Van Vleuten's journey to the top could not have been without drama. While she was leading the race in the gold medal position, the accident she had in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Road Race was frightening. The same accident also left van Vleuten's mother, Ria, devastated. “I thought you were dead,” Ria later confesses.

The accident became one of YouTube's most viewed videos, but Van Vleuten's memories are limited. “I lost consciousness,” she says. “I was alone at the front and I knew that Mara Abbott, who was coming behind me, was not a good descender. However, I didn't intend to take risks, but I miscalculated a corner. "I know it looks scary on screen, but my last injury was much worse."

Three lumbar spine fractures, a severe concussion, and 24-hour intensive care sound bad enough, but a month later she won the Tour of Belgium. Van Vleuten seems to have made peace with her Rio memories.

ROAD TO VICTORY

Great moments of Van Vleuten's cycling career

2008

At the age of 25, van Vleuten joined her first professional team, Vrienden van het Platterland.

2011

She started to make a name for herself by winning the Tour of Flanders and the Women's Road World Cup with Nederland Bloeit.

2014

Won the Tour of Belgium and the first of her three national time trial titles

2016

She crashed while leading the race at the Rio Olympics. A month later, she won the Tour of Belgium for the second time.

2017

She became the world-time trial champion for the first time in Bergen. In the same season, she won the Holland Ladies Tour and the Great Ocean Road Race.

2018

She enjoyed her most successful year, winning the Giro Rosa, La Course, the World Time Trial Championship, and the Women's World Tour.

2019

Vleuten, who left her closest rival by more than 2 minutes with her extraordinary solo attack in Yorkshire, became the world road champion.